Tag: felling

Tim Anderson has an article in the most recent issue of Make Magazine, in the “Heirloom Technology” section, called The Widowmaker: Cutting Down a Tree. (That last link should take you to the online version of the article.) While the title might lead you to believe that Anderson has a healthy respect for the amount of damage you could do to yourself by cutting down a tree wrong, the article itself… well, I think it tells you a wrong way to cut down a tree. If Anderson has cut down many trees in the way he describes, I think he’s very, very lucky.

Not that I’m an expert woodsman, or anything. I just have some common sense and a childhood that involved watching my dad and great-grandfather (who had been a lumberjack when he was younger) cut trees on our property and on a friend’s woodlot.

There are three things wrong with the article, in my opinion. First, the photos show him cutting down a tree with a chainsaw while wearing clogs, shorts, and no hand or eye protection. It’s a small chainsaw, but still, you should have some caution. Second, he advises you to make the first cut more than halfway through the tree. Don’t do that, unless you want the tree to start leaning into your cut, binding and probably destroying your saw. And third, he doesn’t tell you to make the back cut (the last cut) a few inches above the first cut. This is the bit that could kill you. If you’re making a horizontal back cut, it should be above the back of the face cut (the first cut) to provide a ledge for the tree to push against as it falls, preventing it from kicking back. You could also make a sloped back cut, starting from above the face cut and angling down to meet it. This would also provide a face for the tree to push against as it falls. But just making a horizontal cut at the same level as the face cut provides no kickback protection at all.

I’m a big fan of Make, and I appreciate that they publish articles that have an element of danger to them. But this one, I think, borders on irresponsible. It’s always going to be somewhat dangerous to cut down a tree, but it doesn’t have to be nearly as dangerous as it would be if you followed those instructions.

I was so alarmed as I read this article last night that I actually got out of bed and wrote a letter to the editor. Maybe I was overreacting–I guess not many Make readers are going to read that article and run out into their backyards to cut down a redwood. And maybe his instructions work fine for smaller trees. All I know is, there’s no way in hell I’d cut down any of the trees around here in the manner he describes, except maybe the tiny ornamental maple out front.